A Party for Yami Bakura
by Loverly Light
Summary: Sequel to A Present for Yami Yuugi. Everyone's at Anzu's party, and all are behaving themselves nicely. No incidents whatsoever. Ah, if only it was true...


Disclaimer and short note: I don't own the rights to Yu-Gi-Oh!, own some manga but not the actual rights. Oh yes, there will be a little devotionshipping at the start of this fic, but please don't let it turn you away, this does focus mainly on Ryou and Bakura. And as this is a sequel to "A Present for Yami Yuugi" it would make more sense if you read that first, although it's not entirely nessicary. It will make more sense, though. ^^"

A party for Yami Bakura

Ryou walked happily down the sidewalk, heaping bag of presents in his arms. Of course, half of them were his yami's, but Ryou was used to Bakura's laziness. Said yami was walked on his left, hands stuffed into his jacket's pockets and mumbling about something or other… probably the fact he had to get presents for people in the first place. He didn't want to, of course, but Ryou had insisted.

Jonouchi was walking on Ryou's right, swinging a noticeably smaller but still quite full bag of gifts. He had come over mid-morning, asking Ryou slightly sheepishly if he could stay with Ryou until Anzu's party. Ryou agreed, and they had spent the morning playing Clue with Bakura— until Jonouchi jumped up and accused Bakura of cheating. At the dark glare he received, he quickly changed his mind and resigned instead. Ryou chuckled slightly at the memory. Jonouchi obviously hadn't played enough games with Bakura to know that he never cheats, whether what he's doing might typically be referred to as such or not.

They had lunch and then started walking towards Anzu's. Both boys had been looking forwards to the party ever since Anzu told them about it two weeks before. Bakura was noticeably less excited about it, but he didn't generally like social gatherings in the first place, much less when Yuugi's Yami was there. Anzu had requested both yamis be there along with their hosts, although Bakura certainly would have refused if Yuugi and Ryou hadn't ganged up on him.

Ryou's head shot up, and he scurried forwards as the Mazaki's house came into view. Jonouchi followed quickly, but Bakura continued walking at his slow pace, not caring at all that he was making the others wait for him. Jonouchi shot him a glare (which was vehemently ignored) then rang the doorbell.

"Oh, hi guys! Glad you made it!" Anzu greeted her newest guests cheerfully. Jonouchi almost dropped the bag he was carrying. Anzu was wearing a dark green turtleneck under a red jumper, with leggings that matched her shirt and a Santa hat cocked on her head.

"A-Anzu, you look… really cute." Jonouchi sputtered out.

"Thank you." the girl giggled.

"No, I mean… _really_ cute." Jonouchi repeated enthusiastically, taking a step forward, staring at her bright blue eyes.

"J-Jonouchi-kun…" the girl whispered, staring back into his eyes, and reaching a hand out to touch his cheek…

"Hey, _some_ people want to get inside, so can you two stop that disgusting flirting and get out of the way already? Besides, you're letting the cold air in."

Jonouchi and Anzu snapped out of their own world, blushing and looking away from each other. They quickly hurried inside, followed shortly by a sweatdropping Ryou and annoyed Tomb Robber.

Ryou walked into the living room, shifting the bag of presents to one side to get a better view of the room. His face lit up as he caught sight of the Christmas tree and scurried forwards. Bakura watched as his host set the bag on the ground and started unloading presents. However, the boy's actions soon confused the yami, as Ryou started pulling the gifts already there out from under the tree.

"What are you doing, hikari?" Bakura asked, walking forwards to get a better view of his hikari's actions.

"Oh, hi yami. I'm rearranging the presents under the tree. Me and Amane always used to do it…" the boy's voice faded and he stared at the carpet. This was his eighth Christmas without Amane.

"Hey, Ryou, what's up?" a cheerful voice broke the uneasy silence as Katsuya approached.

"Ah, hello Jonouchi-kun." Ryou smiled, mood swiftly changing. "I'm rearranging the presents under the tree."

"Oh, that's… interesting." Jonouchi said for lack of a better response. "Hey, want any help?"

A soft smile grew on Ryou's face. "Yeah, I'd like that."

* * *

"Hey, fancy seeing you here!" the young hostess called out as she walked up the three boys around the refreshments table. "Especially you, Jonouchi. So weird to see you around food… it must feel rather weird, seeing how you avoid it as often as you can."

"Ha ha, Anzu, very funny." Jonouchi responded huffily, and Yuugi and Ryou laughed at their friend. Ryou had been standing near the table when Yuugi went up to talk to him. Soon, Jonouchi had showed up, although his focus was more towards food than conversation. He had already eaten one-eighth of the large bowl of chips, along with two handfuls of candy.

"Hey, Jonouchi," Honda walked up to the four. "I was hoping to see your sister here. Aren't you going to get together with her over the holidays?"

Jonouchi chuckled. "Yup, but I'm going up there, not the other way around. I'm leaving right after the party, and I'm planning on being there when she wakes up Christmas morning. It'll be great to see her again!"

"Give her my love!"

"Um… I'll let her know you said hi, Hiroto, but that's all."

Anzu chuckled slightly, but then she looked slightly sad. "Seto and Mokuba weren't able to make it either…"

"You mean you invited that jerk?"

"I sent him an invitation," Anzu continued, ignoring Jonouchi's comment, "but Mokuba sent me a response saying he's sorry but his brother's busy that night, and he doesn't want to come on his own. Although," The girl brightened up, "I'm glad it's just the five of us. Well, seven." The girl glanced over her shoulder to where the two ancient Egyptians were glaring at each other.

"It's just nice to have it be just us. I mean, I like everyone else, but I'm glad our original group could get together by ourselves for once."

"Anzu, am…" Ryou blushed slightly and lowered his head. "Am I part of that group?" he asked quickly and quietly.

"What are you talking about, Ryou? Of course you are!" Yuugi assured. Honda and Jonouchi nodded, and Anzu smiled at him and squeezed his hand.

"Don't worry about that sort of thing, Ryou. You're important to us, and you'll always be one of my closest friends, just like Yuugi, Honda-kun and Jonouchi-kun will."

Ryou smiled back at the girl, then spoke louder, "So, what's everyone doing for Christmas?"

"Well, it'll just be me, mom and Grandpa at the Game Shop. It'll be great though— not to mention Yami promised he'd help me with my deck and duel me in the afternoon."

"Jeez, always about card games with you two, isn't it?" Honda joked, being one of the two non-duelists in their group. "Well, my family is all gathering, and I mean all of it. Every one of my siblings is going to be coming over, along with their kids, and my grandparents might come too. One thing's for sure, it definitely won't be quiet."

"Wait, does that include Perv junior? Remind me not to visit you until the holidays are over." Anzu stuck her tongue out at the boy. "Well, Christmas day itself will just be with my parents, but the next day we'll be going to my grandparent's house, and so will a bunch of my aunts, uncles and cousins."

"What about you, Ryou?" Jonouchi asked, turning to the boy. "What are your Christmas plans?"

Ryou stiffened slightly as all eyes turned towards him. Part of the reason he had asked was in the hopes they wouldn't notice he hadn't said anything.

"W-well," he stuttered, "m-my dad said he'd try to call tomorrow. If he's able."

Ryou lowered his head in embarrassment as the rest each gave him some type of pitying or shocked expression.

"Oh Ryou, I'm so sorry! Y-you can spend the night here and have Christmas with my family if you—"

"No, Anzu, really, it's fine." Ryou interrupted the girl, raising his head to display a reassuring smile. "I'm used to spending it alone, and I'd feel like I would be imposing, even if you keep insisting I'm not. It's not like I was expecting it to be any different… or really wanting to anyway. I mean…" Ryou drifted off. He had been about to explain how Christmas had always been so important to him, but that was before his mother and Amane's deaths, and his father never being around. But he didn't really want to tell them that.

Bakura leaned back in his seat, breaking eye contact with the other yami to stare into space, although in reality he was listening to the five's conversation. He knew Ryou's father was rarely home, but for some reason it upset his host more during this time than any other. The man hadn't been home for Christmas since Ryou was thirteen… or was that twelve? The spirit couldn't quite remember.

Bakura rested his chin on a hand and let out a breath. He knew this holiday was important to Ryou for some reason. Bakura couldn't really see why, but it was.

* * *

"Thank you for the present, it is very nice, I shall try to figure out why on earth you gave it to me every day." Bakura repeated dully as he stared at the T-shirt Anzu gave him.

"Yami, would it hurt to act a little more grateful?"

Bakura glanced over at Ryou. "I thought you didn't like it when I lie."

The hikari sighed. This was pretty much the way his yami had reacted to all the presents he had received so far.

Actually, most of the presents had been opened already. In fact, now there were only two left. One for each yami.

The two spirits had their gifts from the other on their laps now, staring at them. Yami was almost glaring a hole through the flat package, while Bakura was openly paranoid, acting as though the box would try to attack him or something.

"Hey, are you guys going to open those sometime this year?" Both Egyptians turned their dark glares to Honda, who quickly sweatdropped and backed up slightly.

"He kinda has a point though. You guys should open your presents soon. We all wanna see what you got for each other!"

Yuugi and Ryou winced at the blonde's words. They both knew what their other had gotten the other yami, and they were not looking forwards to the reaction.

Anzu sweatdropped. "Well, why don't you go first, Yami Yuugi? Then you can open yours after him, Bakura."

"I don't want to. It might be a bomb."

"Oh, please, Pharaoh. It isn't thick enough for a bomb. Although yours is… did you give me a bomb? I'll kill you if you did."

Yami rolled his eyes. "Of course I didn't. It could harm the people near you."

Bakura sighed. "I didn't send you anything deadly, or even… well, I suppose it could be harmful, but only if you're a total idiot."

Yami's eyes narrowed. "Fine, I'll open it, but then you have to open yours."

"Deal." Bakura sneered, and the rest of the gang sweatdropped as Yami carefully tore off the wrapping paper, acting as though it would bite him if he didn't pay attention.

Yami frowned as the gift was uncovered. It was… paper?

The six others watched, Bakura with a cocky smirk, as Yami sifted through the loose sheets of paper. Although he was holding it so the blank backs faced them, they soon gathered it wasn't anything good as he lowered the paper and gave the Tomb Robber a death glare.

"Like them, Pharaoh?"

"You…" Yami got out through his clenched teeth. "You _dare_ to give me something like _this_? You're horrible!"

"What is it, Yami?" Yuugi asked, concerned.

"Every single one of _these_," Yami spat, throwing the paper on the floor, "was made for the sole purpose of reminding me I can't remember my past or my real name."

"Oh, maybe not _sole_ purpose of them."

Yami head shot up quickly. Bakura was examining his fingers boredly.

"What do you mean, Tomb Robber?"

"Weeell, simply that I might have possibly placed some hints in there about your real name."

Yami's eyes widened. "You wouldn't do something like that."

"Hey, it's supposed to be a _gift_, isn't it?"

The former Pharaoh paused, gaze switching back and forth between Bakura and the pile of papers. Then he quickly snatched the sheets up again.

"Yami, I'm not sure…"

"No, no, there could be something!" he interrupted his host, looking intently over the first page. "I can even call Ishizu to see if she could help. I could find out my real name soon, aibou!"

Bakura chuckled, leaning back against the seat of the chair he was sitting by. Of course there weren't any hints about Yami's real name in there— even though he knew it, he wouldn't tell _Yami_ what it is. He only wished there was some way he could watch Yami try to scour his doodles for something about his name… Hmm, maybe he could convince Yuugi to videotape it…

"Yami, you can look at that later. Don't you want to see Bakura open your present?" Anzu interjected.

"Huh? Oh, yes. Thank you for the present, Bakura."

"Hmm." Bakura responded. He didn't really want to open the gift… but hey, it might be something useful. So he carelessly ripped off the paper and threw it to one side, "accidentally" smacking Ryou in the face with it.

He lifted the lid of the shoebox… and gawked.

There were three Millenium Items inside.

Bakura started chuckling quietly as he glanced over them. Oh, poor Yami, so foolish… maybe he thought this "truce" actually meant something to the Tomb Robber. Let's see, there was the Tauk, and the Rod, and the Puzzle…

Wait, the Puzzle?

Bakura's soft laughter quickly stopped as he frowned and picked up the Puzzle. He glanced up— yes, Yuugi was still wearing the Puzzle, so what was this?

He lifted this second Puzzle to eye level, and groaned.

Paper mache. It was paper mache and gold paint.

"Do you like it, Bakura? I used the actual Items as a guide." The faux-innocent voice of the Pharaoh came over.

"Oh yes, I love it. They'll make perfect decoys for when I break into your host's house and steal the actual Items."

"Well, just make sure you don't actually bring the wrong ones off with you." Yuugi said brightly.

At Bakura's raised eyebrow, the light explained, "I heard you chuckling."

Bakura huffed and leaned back as everyone else laughed at him.

"So? I could have been laughing about anything."

"Of course you could, yami." Ryou agreed, although he was chuckling slightly. Bakura pouted and puffed out his cheeks.

"We're going home, Ryou."

"What?" the boy asked, slightly distraught. "Why—"

"It's eight thirty, and I thought you said you wanted to be home before nine. If you wanna get home in time, we'll have to start walking soon."

"Yipes, is it really that late?" Honda yelped. "I'm supposed to be home in fifteen minutes!"

"We should probably all go home soon," Yuugi added sadly.

A few minutes later everyone had on their coats, with their presents nearby.

"Goodbye, Anzu, and thank you very much for inviting me. I really had a great time. Bye everyone!" Ryou called, then he and his Yami walked out into the icy December night.

A little over half an hour later, Ryou shuffled up to the door of his apartment. After unlocking the door he walked inside, Bakura following silently. Ryou sighed happily as he entered the warm room, then tore off his heavy coat and hung it up.

"I think I'm gonna go to bed early, yami."

"Okay."

Ryou blinked. He had expected the response to be something more along the lines of 'and why should I care?' as was his normal reaction to Ryou informing him of his plans. But it wasn't like Ryou minded Bakura being less mean than normal.

"Okay then. Goodnight yami!"

* * *

Bakura watched emotionlessly as his light slept soundly. The boy shifted slightly, curling up, and a soft smile grew over Bakura's face.

Turning around, the yami quietly slipped out of the house.

* * *

Ryou woke slowly, winced as he realized if he had wanted the sun to stay out of his eyes he should have remembered to close the blinds the previous night, and turned onto his stomach in order to bury his face in his pillow.

It was Christmas morning.

A few minutes later Ryou slipped out of bed, tugging on a robe before walking out to the living room, turning on the heater for lack of a fireplace. He leaned against the wall and gazed at the Christmas tree, and five presents below.

Wait… five?

Ryou frowned. That wasn't right. There were the three from his father, and his gift to Bakura... so what was this extra present?

Ryou pushed up from the wall and walked to the tree. He giggled slightly. Well, whatever this gift was, the person who wrapped it had obviously not tried wrapping presents before.

He scooped the package into his hand… and almost dropped it in astonishment. There, in his yami's familiar scrawl, were the words "Merry Christmas, Ryou".

Ryou smiled and leaned against the wall, hugging the poorly-wrapped gift to his chest.

_Merry Christmas, Bakura._

* * *

Author's notes: Remember, the best presents come in poorly-wrapped packages! (That's a common saying around my house. ^^) So, I hope you all enjoyed, and that you all will have a very Merry Christmas. ^^ (Just to let you know, I can see some parts where people might think I was hinting RyouXAnzu, but I only meant it as friends. If you want to read that into it, though, that's fine with me... just please don't read any yaoi pairing in, please? Oh yes, and the JounXAnzu part was pretty cheezy. It was meant to be so. XD)


End file.
